C. Fred Kleinknecht, 33°
Sovereign Grand Commander

The Pentagon is not far from the House of the Temple in Washington, D.C. The World Trade Center was not far from the Grand Lodge of New York in New York City. Terrorism is not far from the great concerns of Freemasonry.

Masonry, in all its branches, teaches the importance of unending opposition to tyranny, and the terrorist is the worst sort of tyrant. He does not have even the questionable dignity and honor of the traditional tyrant who, at least, stood in the public gaze and made himself and his actions visible. The terrorist skulks in the shadow. He infects the body of a nation as a disease infects the human body, striking without warning and killing by stealth. Combining the worst of tyrant and fanatic, the terrorist's one goal is the infliction of suffering and anarchy.

Again and again, the Degrees of the Scottish Rite warn against tyranny and fanaticism. Appropriately, our President has declared war on terrorism. Every Scottish Rite Freemason has already vowed, in the obligations of the Rite, to be a soldier in that war. Even without such a vow, no American can stand on the sidelines during this battle.

But, granted that we are already self-enlisted in the war against the tyranny and fanaticism of terrorism, how do we fight? What weapons do we wield?

First, at the most obvious level, we fight by supporting our government, by giving blood to help the victims, by providing resources to help those who lives have been rent asunder. I am proud of the way that the Scottish Rite Supreme Councils, the Grand Lodges, the Appendant Bodies, and individual Masons are already meeting those needs, and I do not doubt that we will continue so long as needs exist.

On another level, we must fight by steeling ourselves for a long and difficult conflict. Despite the hard road ahead and the multiple dangers in our way, we must press forward and never slacken in our support of every appropriate effort to find and prosecute those who have perpetrated these horrific acts.

In pursuing these goals, we must resist our own tendencies toward tyranny, our urge to rush to instant judgement, our desire for immediate revenge as opposed to true justice. As difficult as it will be, we must not punish the innocent in an attempt to reach the guilty. It is so easy to hate; so simple to let rage direct our lives. And we can feel self-righteousness when we do so. It is a powerful delusion. Witness those who crashed with the airplane in rural southwest Pennsylvania or who flew the airplanes into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. They may have thought to die in a blaze of glory; instead, they perished in the glare of infamy. They allowed a fanatical tunnel vision to possess their lives. We must not.

Rather, let us work together, as Americans and Freemasons, to meet this evil. Terrorism is a scourge that circles the globe. It destroys whatever it touches, but universal Freemasonry will not yield. Together, we will destroy terrorism's hate and tyranny with the more powerful weapons of our Craft—brotherhood and freedom.

United and strengthened by that unity, we will prevail!

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